Understanding Institutional Logics by Sense Making : A case study of a sustainability project

Abstract: Background: Sustainability is realized by companies to different extends as plenty of pressures operate on projects which influence the outcome. One specific influence are the actors who make sense of the pressures based on organizational and personal experiences. By the combination of institutional logics and organizational sensemaking theory, organizational influences in form of pressures and logics (forming the macro-level) and personal views based on individual sense making (micro-level) are combined to a micro-macro connection. The integration of the both theories leads to a deeper understanding on ‘sustainability integration’. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to understand how individuals handle sustainability in a project in a multinational company with has a focus in sustainability. It is of most interest how the influences, represented by the concept of institutional logics, are constructed by the sensemaking of the actors. Research question: How do employees make sense of a project with a sustainability purpose based on institutional logics? Method: The research design of this thesis is an exploratory case study with data collection by the hands of semi-structured interviews. Abductive reasoning was applied. An epistemological position of constructivism and interpretivism was taken. Conclusion: The findings of this study show that organizational pressures are not explicitly noted by each individual. A collective sensemaking is found in the fact that a sustainable project must be affordable for the customers to meet their needs. This finding however, can be traced back to the organizational level which is coined by a strong value culture.